Family Ties
by Master of The Blood Wolves
Summary: A turian female confronts a human friend of hers about his bipolar behaviour and learns how cruel humans can be. Turian POV, contains strong coarse language and themes.


Family Ties

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Mass Effect or any characters therein.**

**Any characters within this story are my own creation barring any characters that actually appear in official Mass Effect media.**

For the two Citadel standard years that Xerina Felgael had known Joseph Ford, she'd known an irascible, irreverent human with a casual modesty and unflappable nature that were at odds with his sharp, incisive mind and biotic proficiency.

It wasn't often she met him in a mood where he wasn't interested in just talking, or getting a drink or doing something.

She'd even pinged him late on his omni-tool once or twice, drunk off her wits just to talk and woke up on his couch the next morning, with no mention of it made,-even jestingly,-afterward.

That said, she had noted that every now and then he fell into a somewhat depressive and uncommunicative mood.

Such as the particularly exasperating one he'd fallen into recently.

If he stuck with the script, he'd be like this for a week or two then be back to his usual self.

This time however, Xerina wasn't having any of it. If he was bipolar, then he was going to talk to someone about it and get help. If the problem was something else, then he was going to talk to her about it. If he wasn't interested in talking, well too bad. She was.

'Ford?' Xerina asked, using the holo-interface to make her presence known to the human, who'd apparently decided he was going to be a shut in in his apartment this time around.

She knew he was in there as well.

In all his usual haunts, he was conspicuous by his absence and when she'd asked a mutual friend of herself and Ford,-a quarian by the name of Halas'Kelt,-if she'd seen him, she'd told her that she had indeed seen him just that morning and helped him with some house work.

It took a couple of moments for the holo-interface to change, but when it did, she was presented with the visage she'd come to associate as Joseph Ford in one of his depressive moods: Dark bags contrasting starkly with his tanned skin, under his sea-green eyes, slumped shoulders and a general air of apathy about him.

'Afternoon Xerina. What brings you here?' Joseph asked, his voice lacking the cheery quality it usually had. If he had've been turian, Xerina would've almost said he sounded _forlorn_.  
'You sounded kind of down at the last game at the Castle.' Xerina replied. 'Usually you're a lot more animated when you manage a come from behind win like that.' She opened. 'Mind if I come in?'  
'Sorry, Xerina but I'm in no fit state to entertain today, let alone make small talk.' Joseph replied and quite obviously went to go.  
'Yeah, I noticed, but don't you think your friends deserve to know why you go from cheery to depressed every couple of months?' Xerina asked as he did. 'If you've got a problem, talking might be the best thing for you.' She added.

Joseph turned back at that and let out a long sigh.

'I'm not bipolar. Can you just let it be? I don't pry into your life.' Joseph pointed out.  
'Will you let me up? Or am I going to have to go and get Halas so we can hack our way in and talk some sense into you?'

It wasn't an idle threat, and Joseph knew it.

'Christ.' Joseph muttered in exasperation. 'Fine.' He said in a resigned tone and the door in front of Xerina hissed open, revealing the modest, but clean and colourfully decorated apartment on the other side.

It also revealed Joseph Ford himself in a pair of tracksuit pants and a loose shirt with his hands on his hips and a look of faintly amused exasperation on his face.

'I'm not the one with the problem, just so you know.' Joseph said evenly.  
'You could have fooled me.' Xerina countered as she walked in, using one of Joseph's frequent utterances when he heard something stupid.

She was always taken by surprise whenever she came by Joseph's house:

The wall opposite the door was dominated by a portrait of a small farmstead framed by the sunset and a huge thunderstorm approaching from the right hand side of the portrait, and trees and rocks scattered here and there below.

Beside that, the flag of Joseph's birth nation hung and below a red and black scarf. The significance of the latter eluded her.

'Drink?' Joseph asked, politely, though the resignation in his voice told Xerina his heart wasn't in it like it usually was.  
'Klava, thank you.' Xerina replied as Joseph headed for the kitchen.  
'So?' Xerina asked curiously. 'What's the story?'  
'It's a bloody old one.' Joseph said as the sound of a kettle being filled came from the kitchen and Xerina made herself as comfortable as she could on a couch opposite a faux-fireplace and a vid-screen currently showing a pause screen for a antiquated shooter. Something called _Halo Reach.  
__He would have old games though, wouldn't he? _Xerina mused to herself. It wasn't even holo, just a moving image on the vid-screen.  
'It's still turning you into a manic depressive.' Xerina called back.

Another, almost dramatised sigh reached Xerina's ears.

'You at all familiar with human holidays and traditions?' Joseph asked in a peculiar tone of voice. It sounded…resigned, but frustrated at the same time? 'Christmas? Easter? Mother's Day? Father's Day? Those are some of the more widely known and practiced and or celebrated ones.' He asked.  
'Hard not to know what Christmas is.' Xerina replied. 'Spirits, the hanar, asari and even some turians celebrate it.' She shook her head in amusement. Religious significance to a few human religions aside, it wasn't that bad a way to organise family reunions and it always nice to receive gifts from friends, regardless of the time of year. 'The other ones, not really. Easter is a religious holiday, right?' She asked.

'Yeah, it is. A Christian one, for the most part.' Joseph replied as the kettle clicked loudly, signifying it was done boiling. 'The other two aren't so much holidays as days of appreciation for your parents.' Joseph explained as he prepared the drinks.

He appeared around the supporting wall that separated the kitchen and living room carrying two cups, which he set down on the table, before turning off the vid-screen with his omni-tool.

'If you knew the human calendar, you'd know it's around those times of year when I tend to be a bit withdrawn.' He added, before taking a seat. 'Red mug is yours.' He added, taking the other one,-a translucent, iodine brown glass one that looked like it had been through the Skyllian Blitz, Relay 314 incident and who knew how many wars before hand, judging by all the scratches and how faded it was.

They both drank, then Xerina gave Joseph a look.

'It's good klava, but you're avoiding my question.' She stated.  
'I'm getting there.' Joseph said, his tone of voice the relaxed, easy going tone she most associated with him, but where normally he'd be laying back with one foot on the opposite knee and be at his ease, he sat leaned forward, hands clasped in front of him.

'It was Mother's Day just yesterday gone and I rang home, thought I'd say hello, all that kind of thing.' Joseph's voice was still casual and relaxed sounding, but there was an edge to it, that to a turian was perfectly audible.

He was upset.

The faint blue glow crackling around Joseph's dark blonde hair was another tell tale that he wasn't as relaxed as his tone tried to suggest.

'So, she answered and I said hello, said 'It's Joseph, your son; Happy Mother's Day, Mum,' and the line goes silent for about three seconds then I just get 'My son is dead.' and a handset slamming into the cradle.' He explained, his tone steadily going from the falsely cheerful tone to a depressive and bitter one. 'Father's Day, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, I ring home, wish them well, try and open a dialogue.' Joseph said, his voice carefully neutral but hitching slightly midway through as he swallowed, biting back the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. 'And they act like I'm a fucking jackass prank calling them as a dead son.' As he finished, a wildly flickering biotic corona encased him.

Xerina went still as she looked at Joseph.

She'd never seen him really angry, let alone this close to losing control of his biotics.

'Why would they act like that?' Xerina asked.

Joseph snorted bitterly, seized his mug and took a gulp to steady himself, closing his eyes as he swallowed and drawing a breath once he swallowed.

'It's because I'm a fucking biotic.' Joseph said. 'They're religious. Really religious. I manifested when I was about eleven, getting close on twelve. When the Alliance gave me a scholarship at Grissom Academy, first holiday home, they informed me I wasn't welcome in their household unless I underwent an exorcism to 'rid me of the evil spirit that gave me my unnatural powers'.' Joseph clenched a fist and breathed deep. 'I tried to explain it wasn't my fault and I wasn't possessed, that'd I'd been born like this, likely mum had been exposed to eezo before I was born from a freighter accident or something and that I didn't need to be exorcised. They wouldn't listen, quoted some bullshit from that 'almighty all-knowing book of bullshit' of their's and basically told me, 'exorcism, or get the fuck out.'' Joseph fell silent, then sighed. 'I rang the Academy. Told them what happened. They let me stay on and I never went home again. Every now and then, I've tried to ring home, let 'em know I don't hold it against them. That I still love 'em like the family they are. And I get treated like shit for it.' He sighed. 'Been trying a bit harder than I have before after the Geth attack. Kind of puts things in perspective. Every time, it's either my mum telling me her son is dead, or my dad telling me I'm no son of his and that I can basically go fuck meself and go to Buggery.'

Xerina didn't know what to say.

She was horrified:

It was virtually unheard of for a turian clan to disown one of their own. Certainly not for something as simple as an individual manifesting as a biotic.

'Spirits, they disowned you? Just like that? Twelve years old is considered young by humans, isn't it?' She asked.  
'Yes.' Joseph replied, though to what, or all three questions, Xerina didn't know. She gave a sympathetic trill, even though she knew it was at too high a register for Joseph to hear.

She thought for a second, then moved around the table sat down beside him, then pulled him into an embrace.

It was awkward,-turians didn't usually go for public displays of affection and embraces were usually between intimates,-but it was a common gesture between humans,-or so Xerina had read during her xenoanthropology course in officer school,-and Joseph obviously needed some sympathy.

And an offer for some turian stress release probably wouldn't be welcome either. Mostly because Xerina was fairly sure there was some chemistry between Joseph and Halas'Kelt and she didn't want to intrude and partly because she remembered the last time she'd propositioned him,-drunkenly,-and he'd put her in a stasis field and locked her in his room for the night to sleep it off.

'I'm sorry.' She said softly and Joseph embraced her back, clinging to her like she was his lifeline.

They sat there for a few minutes while Joseph quietly tried to put himself back together, before he sat up and downed the last of his own pale brew.

'Thanks.' He said croakily.  
'I didn't mean to intrude.' Xerina said awkwardly by way of apology, edging away slightly.  
'Thanks anyway. Last person who tried to talk to me about it was some counsellor back at Grissom and she was half arsed about it, too busy playing relationship advisor to half the other students, while I was too fucking angry with my parents to be bothered.' Joseph replied.  
'Feel any better for it?' Xerina asked.  
'Still feel like shit, but not so much like I want to kill the next person who looks at me funny.' Joseph replied then shrugged. 'How's that?'  
'An improvement. But you really need to look at finding someone to talk to about that.' Xerina said.  
'Shrinks are over priced, down at Tricky's isn't the place for stuff like that and well, I tried to talk to Halas this morning when she came around to help me give this place a bit of a clean, but, well she got kind of flustered and just asked not to.' Joseph shook his head. 'Didn't feel game enough to come to you, partly because I didn't know if you were busy, partly because you can turn into a bloody dragon when your job and everything gets you and partly because I still remember the last time you got on the drink.' He added, giving her a look that was filled with gentle mockery. 'So thanks for listening.'  
'You're a friend Ford. If you can get a line to me on my omni-tool you're free to talk. After what we went through with the Geth attack, you earned it.' Xerina replied as she took a drink of her now pleasantly warm klava.

They sat there drinking silently for a bit, then Joseph sighed.

'To hell with it.' He mutted. 'Do turians do anything else besides sex to work off stress?' Joseph asked abruptly.  
'Sparring, combat sims, whatever works.' Xerina answered after a moment. 'Why?'  
'Because I still feel like I could go a few rounds with a krogan berserker.' Joseph replied. 'And I don't have any combat armour or weapons, so sparring will have to do; you up for it? He asked. 'I'll have to use my biotics to even have a chance of keeping up and not wind up shredded, but I won't use anything beyond a barrier or focus shield. Sound fair?'

Xerina cocked her head to the side considering.

On the one hand, she wasn't one to turn down a challenge.

On the other, how much of a challenge could he be? Especially as worked up as he was.

Then again, this wasn't about her, was it?

'Sure.' She replied.

**And that is my entry for the May Mother's Day Competition on Aria's Afterlife.**

**This is the first time I've taken one of the Aria's Afterlife challenges.**

**I had fun writing it and I hope you enjoy reading it.**

**Incidentally, this is also my first purely Mass Effect fan fiction.**

**Please leave a review and let me know what you think.**

'**til next time.**


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